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Nizar
Abū Manṣūr Nizār al-Muṣṭafá li-Dīn’il-Lāh (1045-1097, Arabic: أبومنصور نزار المصطفى لدين الله‎) was the founder (and an Imām) of the Nizāri branch of Ismā‘ilī Shia Islam. Following the death of his father, Al-Mustansir Billah, he was deposed by his brother, Ahmad al-Musta‘lī but his son, al-Hādī ibn Nizār, escaped to Alamūt and took refuge with believers there, thereby continuing the Imāmate. The name Nizar is a Persian word, means thin, slim, slender, lean, spare or weak. As it is said kilki nizar means a slender reed or pen. The Persian name tends to the fact that Imam al-Mustansir had perceived the forthcoming division in the Ismailis, and that his successor would be supported in the Persian society more than the Arabian territories. It seems that Imam al-Mustansir had chosen the name Nizar to cohere him and his descendants with the Persian culture. The cause of the Nizarid was also supported by the Persian missionaries, notably Hassan-i Sabbah, Nasir Khusaro and Abdul Malik bin Attash. History When Hassan-i Sabbah was yet in Cairo in 1078, De Lacy O'Leary writes in A Short History of the Fatimid Khalifate (London, 1923, p. 209) that, "At the time, it appears, the court was divided into two factions over the question of the succession, the one party holding to the Khalif's elder son Nizar, the other to a younger son named Musta'li. In one place Nasir-i Khusaro says that the Khalif told him that his elder son Nizar was to be his heir, and the succession of the older son would be in accordance with the doctrines of the sect as already proved by their adherence to Ismail, the son of Jafar as-Sadiq. But Badr and the chief officials were on the side of the younger son Musta'li." Nasir Khusaro and Hassan-i Sabbah were promulgating the Nizarid Ismaili mission in Badakhshan and Persia in accordance with the directions they had personally received from Imam al-Mustansir when they had been in Cairo. According to Ibn Khallikan, Imam al-Nizar was immured by his brother al-Musta'li's orders and al-Afdal had him shut up between two walls till he died in 1097. According to John Alden Williams in Islam (New York, 1967, p. 218), "The followers of al-Nizar in Abbasid territory refused to accept this and took Nizar's son to one of their mountain fortress, Alamut." The Ismaili missionaries spread the Nizari Ismailism since the time of Imam al-Mustansir by leaps and bounds. Hassan-i Sabbah operated the Nizarid mission freely throughout its length and breath and established the Nizarid rule at Alamut in Persia. Henceforward, the center of the Nizari Imamate with a large following in Syria and Central Asia, transferred from Egypt to Persia. Al-Musta'li remained a puppet in the hands of al-Afdal throughout his short reign (1094-1101), during which the Crusaders first appeared in 1097 in the Levant to liberate the holy land of Christendom. The Crusaders easily defeated the local Fatimid garrison, and occupied Jerusalem in 1099. By 1100, the Crusaders had gained their footholds in Palestine, and founded several principalities based on Jerusalem and other localities in Palestine and Syria. In the midst of the Fatimids' continued attempts to repel the Crusaders, al-Musta'li died in 1102, who made no personal contribution to the Fatimid rule. He virtually held no power in the state, and came out only as required by al-Afdal at the public functions. We have seen heretofore that al-Afdal was an absolute master of the Fatimid empire for 27 years and was murdered in 1121. Yaacov Lev writes in State and Society in Fatimid Egypt (London, 1991, p. 55) that, "On 30 Ramzan 515/12 December 1121, al-Afdal was assassinated and his twenty-seven years of military dictatorship were brought to an end. Although one of the assassins was captured, who masterminded the plot remains unknown. From reading the sources one receives the impression that the Nizari Ismailis perpetrated the killing. However, judging by the subsequent events, al-Amir must have been involved in the plot." Category:Imams